What caught my eye was one word that never appeared in Nocera's column. I'll give you a hint: it begins with (D). Also left out of Nocera's piece, Jon Corzine this election has given the maximum to the Democratic National Committee (and thus to Obama's reelection). But it's not Nocera that's omitting these relevant facts -- it's nearly the whole New York Times.... 0 of 5 NYT articles mentioning MF Global & Corzine mentioned that he's $30,800 donor to Obama's DNC

The debate didn’t really use a Lincoln-Douglas model, and we ended up hearing from the moderators far too much, but both Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich delivered on their promise to give America a substantive debate on the biggest issues of this cycle. For 90 minutes, the two men discussed entitlement reform and associated issues, and even if the two only rarely disagreed, the format allowed for lengthy responses, nuanced proposals — and plenty of opportunity to hit Barack Obama’s performance as President....

Mostly, I think the voters won this debate. We finally had 90 minutes of substantive discussion of the real issues in entitlement reform, offered in positive terms from two of the men who want to lead this country. With media “moderators” out of the way, we put aside slogans and soundbites and the sniping that broadcast outlets love to provoke to write stories on the fluff rather than the issues.

This could set a standard for debates in the future, but only if Republican voters demand to see the other candidates in similar forum models.

Playing With Fire: Occupy Wall Street follows three years of sloppy presidential name-calling — “millionaires and billionaires,” slurs about Las Vegas and the Super Bowl, profit-mad, limb-lopping doctors, introspection that now is not the time for profits and at some point we should cease making money, spread the wealth, punish our enemies, and all the old Obama boilerplate. Someone finally got the message about the evil 1%.

When Ms. Pelosi and President Obama voice support for the protestors, we enter 1984. Does that mean that the Pelosis now pull their millions out of Wall Street, that the First Family eschews the 1% at Martha’s Vineyard and Vail? That Obama turns his back on Wall Street cash, and, for once, accepts public funding for his 2012 campaign? Postmodern class warfare is an insidious business, and hinges on its advocates not looking in the mirror.

No wise politician should invest in the bunch like those rampaging in Oakland.

Committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich, blasted the White House response: “We have been reasonable every step of the way in this investigation, and it is a shame that the Obama Administration and House Democrats continue to put up partisan roadblocks to hide the truth from taxpayers. Solyndra was a jobs program gone bad, and we must learn the lessons of Solyndra as we work to turn our economy around and put folks back to work. Our judicious and methodical work over the last eight months has garnered tens of thousands of pages of documents from DOE and OMB that have proven we are on the right track. Now, we need to know the White House’s role in the Solyndra debacle in order to learn the full truth about why taxpayers now find themselves a half billion dollars in the hole. The White House could have avoided the need for subpoena authorizations if they had simply chosen to cooperate. That would have been the route we preferred, and frankly, it would have been better for the White House to get the information out now, rather than continue to drag this out. Our request for documents is reasonable - we are not demanding the President’s blackberry messages as we are respectful of Executive Privilege. What is the West Wing trying to hide? We owe it to American taxpayers to find out.”

A recent report by Danah Boyd and others reveals that turning parents and children into liars is a principal effect of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. According to Consumer Reports, 7.5 million kids under 13 have joined Facebook. Since Facebook prohibits kids of that age from the service, that’s 7.5 million children who lied in the signup process. And most of them got help in telling the lie from their parents. According to Boyd’s study, the vast majority of parents were aware that their children joined Facebook before reaching 13; in fact, more than two-thirds of these parents helped their under-age kids join.

That’s a lot of lying.

Now, you might ask, “Who the hell is the government to take away the decision whether my kids can join Facebook?” Actually, most parents feel exactly this way. When the study asked them who should have the final say about whether or not their child should be able to use online services, 93% chose the parents, 3% opted for the company providing the service, 2% chose the government, and 2% would leave the decision to the child.

So how did we end up with an online regime that is this intrusive, stupid, and unpopular?

It wasn’t easy. It took a lot of lobbying, and the story may help explain why we have so many stupid privacy rules.Read the rest...

He did this to show the strength of the Republican Party and conservative ideas in comparison to the policies of the Obama Administration.

Gingrich said of the Iowa event and the Republican primary, “This is a national conversation. It’s is an opportunity for the American people to talk about where we are, who we are, what we value and what we are trying to accomplish.”

What differentiated Gingrich’s speech from the other candidates who spoke at the dinner is that he pointed out not the differences between them, but the similarities and strengths that each individual brought to the Republican Party. Each of the candidates brings “unique things” and “unique characteristics” according to Gingrich.

...On top of heaping praise on his fellow competitors, Gingrich made sure to say that his campaign has more substance than any other campaign in “modern history”.

Gingrich is running on the strength of his ideas, and the ideas of fellow Republicans. Making the point that the country needs to be focused on changing course and adopting ideas that will truly turns things around, Gingrich is framing the race on superior governance and policies rather than personalities and personal distractions.

Gingrich brought up two reasons why the Republican electorate should and would nominate him.

I am the only candidate in this race, who at a national level, has balanced the budget four consecutive years, led an effort across the system for the first tax cut in sixteen years, led an effort which led unemployment to drop from 5.6 to 4.2 percent and created a national majority for the first time in forty years and the first re-elected national majority for the first time since 1928.

With scale of the problems that the country is dealing with, Gingrich made it entirely clear that America must have a president that fully understands how to conduct the business of government, including working with the legislative branch and building a national movement.

“What we are faced with is the results of a radical ideology, and an inexperienced and incompetent president.”

In few words Smith acknowledges that Obama has always run on the politics of personal destruction but if anyone questioned Obama’s character Smith and the JournoListers closed ranks and protected Obama.

The JournoListers knew that there was a concerted effort to protect Obama among fellow JournoListers and derail any discussion about Obama ties to Jeremiah Wright because they were reading the emails sent to them but somehow we are supposed to believe that Barack Obama is a genius at murder without high laundry bills....

Ben Smith knows that the politics of personal destruction will once again be the Barack Obama strategy in 2012. The JournoListers are already in amazement mode as they watch Obama pour mud yet the crease on his pants remains sharp and the shirts stay bright white spotless.

Really, folks, five days now, and nobody knows what he did. Think of all the news stories there have been, think of The Politico and how they got this ball rolling, and after five days there has yet to be a report what he did. Nobody knows still. Five days! As Wes Pruden, former editor-in-chief of the Washington Times, points out: When he ran the Washington Times newsroom: If somebody like The Politico reporters would have brought this story to him, he woulda thrown 'em down the steps -- and if they survived that, he would have fired them. (paraphrased exchange) "You're telling me you want my newspaper to publish this rotgut? What do you got? There's nothing here! I want names, places, activities, things that happened. There's nothing here!"

Now that Oakland's streets have been "redecorated" with shattered glass, cement chunks and burning garbage from the Occupy Wall Street movement, it's critical to see that these acts are no aberration, but came after calls for force and violence. What makes it disturbing is how close the White House is to them as election time approaches....

Now (United Steelworkers President Leo) Gerard's calling for taking U.S. bridges and banks by force, depriving citizens of their property, access to money and right of passage. This isn't democracy — it's violence, as the Oakland protests showed. (Gerard's) got the White House ear as a frequent visitor, and has been appointed to the White House Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. On that board, he evidently had enough clout to delay the U.S.-Colombia free-trade treaty for nearly two years.)

Two months ago another White House ally, Teamsters chief Jimmy Hoffa, openly called for his members to "take these sons of bitches out" in Congress, as Obama stood silently at his side. "They got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner," he growled....

One starts to wonder: Is #OccupyWallStreet a grass-roots movement, or a corrupt, violent organization whose real center is the Obama administration itself? One thing's for sure: It isn't interested in democracy.

As of this writing, the total debt is $14.97 trillion, so moving beyond the symbolic $15 trillion is a foregone conclusion. When the unwelcome milestone is reached, it will come at a volatile time both in this country and abroad....

The approaching $15 trillion debt milestone is not even the only piece of bad economic news for the country. The jobs report for October – released this morning – showed that U.S. employers added an estimated 80,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, worse than economists expected. The unemployment rate decreased to 9.0 percent, down from 9.1 percent a month earlier, small consolation for a nation still struggling to recover from a severe recession.

"We've been at 9 percent since 2009. This is a major problem," said Greenhaus. "Nine percent unemployment rate is damaging to the economy and (Fed chairman Ben Bernanke) couldn't have been clearer in the press conference (this week). He was specific. That you have to attack the unemployment rate while it's still attackable."

The 2008 Republican presidential candidate also predicted the movement will eventually lead to the end of Obama's presidency. "Barack Obama praised it, sympathizes with it," he said. "As it gets worse and worse, I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama's neck that will take his presidency down."

Senate Republicans and a few Democrats voted against an Obama-backed infrastructure plan on Thursday.... Commenting on Obama's infrastructure plan, (Senate Minority Leader Mitch) McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said that, "like the rest of his stimulus/tax hike bill, the only thing bipartisan about it, is the opposition. That fact seems to be missing from the statement."

"Also missing is the fact that his party blocked a common-sense extension of the current highway bill -- something (the president) called for this summer -- that Republicans put forward without his beloved tax hikes," Stewart added.

Speaker of the House John Boehner, meanwhile, said the Republican-run House has passed a string of bills seeking to create jobs through reduced business regulations, but the Democratic Senate has not taken them up.

Cain has a good opportunity tomorrow to change the narrative with his “Lincoln-Douglas” style debate in Texas tomorrow with Newt Gingrich. Gingrich won’t bring up these charges, one can be sure, because he’s trying to promote this format as a means to escape “gotcha” politics and get back to substance. If Cain can hold his own in this two-hour-plus debate, by Monday he may be able to put all of this behind him — as long as no more revelations arise.

America is engaged in class war, but not of the sort one reads about in the mainstream press. The truly indigent - young African-American men, for example, most of whom are now unemployed - have little to do in this war. Large corporations for the most part are bystanders as well; they will make their peace with the victor. This is a war of survival between the productive middle class on one hand, and the dependents of the state on the other.

The Tea Party's aversion to government spending is as pure an expression of rational self-interest as we have seen in American history....

The outcome inherently favors the Republicans. Debt - the catchall name for the crushing tax burden - has become a hot button issue even for many Democrats. But this election will be fought more desperately, and nastily, than any other that comes to mind during the past century. This is an existential struggle, a political war of survival for the American middle class. If the government unions go down in the fight, the Democratic Party of Barack Obama will cease to exist in its present form - and that would be a beneficial outcome for the United States.

Republican voters are more likely to express enthusiasm about voting, both nationally and in the swing states. On the national level, 56% of Republican registered voters and 48% of Democratic voters are extremely or very enthusiastic about voting. In the 12 swing states, the Republican advantage in enthusiasm is 59% to 48%. There is a wider partisan gap in favor of the Republican Party among the most enthusiastic voters -- those who say they are extremely enthusiastic -- in the swing states and among the broader U.S. voting population.

Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York -- operating as New York Communities for Change -- have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources.

NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources said....

FoxNews.com’s report identified NYCC as a key organizing force behind the Occupy Wall Street protests. Sources within the group also told FoxNews.com NYCC was hiring people to carry signs and join the protests. NYCC -- a nonprofit organization run almost entirely by former ACORN officials and employees --did not reply for comment prior to the publication of the initial article, but later posted a statement on its website dismissing the article and denying that it pays protesters.

A source said that immediately following publication of the FoxNews.com report staff were called into the Brooklyn office for meetings headed by NYCC’s organizing director, Jonathan Westin. Westin handed out copies of the article and went through it line-by-line, the source said.

Staffers were also given copies of photos of Senior Fox News Correspondent Eric Shawn and three other Fox News staff members, including this reporter.
“They reminded us that we can get fired, sued, arrested for talking to the press,” the source said....

“And all the supplies—everything around the office that said ‘ACORN’ -- is now all in storage until this blows over,” the source said. “People literally have to cover up the cameras on the back of their cellphones in the office.”

“Now there’s no texting in the office, no phone calls in the office. They tell us to take our phone calls out into the waiting room where there’s an intercom, and then they turn on the intercom to hear our conversations. They’re installing new cameras and speakers around the building so they can hear everything.

NYCC’s connection to ACORN isn’t a tenuous one: It works from the former ACORN offices in Brooklyn, uses old ACORN office stationery, employs much of the old ACORN staff and, according to several sources, engages in some of the old organization’s controversial techniques to raise money, interest and awareness for the protests.

Sources said NYCC has hired about 100 former ACORN-affiliated staff members from other cities – paying some of them $100 a day - to attend and support Occupy Wall Street. Dozens of New York homeless people recruited from shelters are also being paid to support the protests, at the rate of $10 an hour, the sources said.
At least some of those hired are being used as door-to-door canvassers to collect money that’s used to support the protests.

Sources said cash donations collected by NYCC on behalf of some unions and various causes are being pooled and spent on Occupy Wall Street. The money is used to buy supplies, pay staff and cover travel expenses for the ex-ACORN members brought to New York for the protests.

In one such case, sources said, NYCC staff members collected cash donations for what they were told was a United Federation of Teachers fundraising drive, but the money was diverted to the protests.

Sources who participated in the teachers union campaign said NYCC supervisors gave them the addresses of union members and told them to go knock on their doors and ask for contributions—and did not mention that the money would go toward Occupy Wall Street expenses. One source said the campaign raked in about $5,000.

Kest publicly threw his organization’s support behind the movement in a Sept. 30 opinion piece on HuffingtonPost.com. But top ex-ACORN staff members and current NYCC officials have been planning events like the Occupy Wall Street protests since February, a source within the group told FoxNews.com.

That’s when planning began for May 12 protests against Chase bank foreclosures, which were followed by the formation of the Beyond May 12 campaign, targeting Wall Street and big banks. That campaign was rolled out by a coalition of community groups and unions and led by the revamped former ACORN group.

“What people don’t understand is that ACORN is behind this — and that this, what’s happening now, is all part of the May 12 and Beyond May 12 plans to go after the banks, Chase in particular,” a source said.

A government regulator said in court Wednesday that roughly $600 million is missing from the books of bankrupt brokerage MF Global.

The firm, headed by former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday following a panic from investors over its holdings of risky European debt.

"MF Global has discovered a shortfall of segregated accounts of around $600 million," a lawyer with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said, adding that this is a preliminary figure that could increase.

...Obama fails on all counts. The numbers say that voters don’t think he deserves reelection, he has no meaningful accomplishments, and the nation is headed off in the wrong direction under his watch. He is simply not viable by any measure. That’s an empirically informed, hard-nosed judgment. This isn’t a movie or fantasy tale where a miracle occurs at the last moment to save the day. If Democrat campaign professionals don’t start acknowledging the same, and intervening, they risk Obama bringing down their entire ticket.

While Cain’s edge over Romney is within the margin of error, this is the first time the former CEO has held any sort of lead in a national primary poll. Last month, Cain and Romney were tied at 29% each. In September, Cain picked up just seven percent (7%) of vote and Perry was the frontrunner.

Politico’s initial story was woven out of insufficient evidence, anonymous sources, and vague allegations that — even if you construed every possible inference against Cain — would amount to an impropriety that outfits like Politico would find too trivial to cover like this if the culprit were a left-leaning Democrat....

[W]e’ve learned the most about Politico. Look, for example, at this: Politico this morning had a post about how, after Cain blamed Perry for being the source of the sexual-harassment story, Perry promptly turned around and floated Romney as the likely source. Yes, congratulations GOP on the circular firing squad — but that’s not the point. The point is: Politico knows who the source is.

This isn’t a game-show where the host has the answer on his little card and his job is to have the contestants keep guessing until someone stumbles into the right answer. This is supposed to be news coverage — professional journalism about a serious matter with a goal of edifying the reader about what actually happened.

Politico has now framed discovery of the identity of the source as is a noteworthy story. Yet, Politico knows that if the identity of the source is a story, it is only because Politico itself is being coy. Politico has reported that Perry may be the source and that Romney may be the source. Yet, Politico knows precisely whether the Perry campaign or the Romney campaign (or both . . . or neither) is the source. It is thus almost certainly true that at least some of the conflicting allegations Politico is airing are known by Politico to be false. In fact, both the Perry and Romney camps have denied involvement — if it so happens that one of those camps is the source, then Politico knows the denial is a lie, yet it published the denial anyway. That would amount to colluding with its source in order to tarnish Cain while fraudulently portraying its source as above the fray.

They're correct when they say that the liberal mainstream media seem much more interested in exhuming ancient Cain peccadilloes than it was in learning about John Edwards' extramarital affair and love child.

Or in doing any reporting on Barack Obama's college grades, terrorist friends, extremist pastor or dodgy real estate deal. Can't spoil his narrative.

But the Constitution guarantees us a free press, not a fair one. Republicans and conservatives start off with some disadvantages in our political world, including a mostly biased press; Democrats and liberals start off with others, like the unpopularity of some of their core convictions. Things seem to balance out over time.

And it has to be said that Cain and, even more, his campaign spokesmen were unprepared to deliver a single definitive response to a story that they had known was brewing for several days. Just as it has to be said that Rick Perry was unprepared to defend his record in Texas in his first three or four presidential debates.

Yes, sometimes we see unpreparedness in the White House. But a candidate who is similarly unprepared will have a hard time getting there.

Supporters argued that it makes more sense for initiatives to be considered during the general election, when voter turnout is typically higher. Republicans blasted the move as a power grab intended to give Democrats and labor allies an edge in defeating an initiative affecting unions' ability to collect members' dues for political purposes that was expected to qualify for the June 2012 ballot.

Bell said the referendum petitions, which have been cleared for circulation by the state attorney general's office, are mocked up and ready to hit the streets if financial backing from the state GOP or other interests emerges.

Showing a growing frustration with the the Obama administration, congressional Republicans on Thursday authorized their second subpoena this week, demanding White House documents related to failed solar technology company Solyndra.

By a 14-9 party-line vote the Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative subcommittee authorized issuing a subpoena for any White House documents related to Solyndra, which received renewable energy loan guarantees under President Obama’s stimulus program. The request for documents could include details of the president’s own travel and communications.

Democrats said it was “unprecedented” to subpoena documents from the president’s executive office like this, but Republicans said they’ve run out of patience with White House “stalling.”

“We simply cannot allow the executive branch at its highest levels to pick and choose what they will produce, or whether they will produce anything at all,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, the Florida Republican who runs the investigative panel.

One of the protest leaders, Boots Riley, touted the day as a success, saying "we put together an ideological principle that the mainstream media wouldn't talk about two months ago."

Riley, whose anti-capitalist views are well-documented, considered the port shut down particularly significant for organizers who targeted it in an effort to stop the "flow of capital." The port sends goods primarily to Asia, including wine as well as rice, fruits and nuts, and handles imported electronics, apparel and manufacturing equipment, mostly from Asia, as well as cars and parts from Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai. An accounting of the financial toll from the shutdown was not immediately available.

The potential for the chaos that ultimately erupted was not something Riley wanted to even consider. "If they do that after all this ..." He paused, then added, "They're smarter than that." But the peace that abided throughout the day, did not last into the night.

Demonstrators managed to gain entry to an empty building that had housed the Traveler's Aid Society, a nonprofit organization that assists the homeless but had suffered funding cuts. Leaflets indicated that protesters had targeted the building for "reuse." They branded it a new "community center" in Twitter feeds. Video from a local ABC affiliate's helicopter showed jubilant crowds flowing in and out of the building, where a banner marked "Occupy Everything" hung. Others built a barricade nearby, presumably to discourage police.

Shortly before midnight, local media reported that police officers from various agencies were suiting up in riot gear. Some demonstrators set the barricade aflame. Firefighters doused it. A police statement later said protesters had hurled rocks, explosives, bottles and flaming objects at officers.

According to a source who is friends with the Cain campaign, not only is the Rick Perry campaign involved but also the Mayor of Chicago and former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks. A friend of the Cain campaign believes a National Restaurant Association (NRA) employee out of the Chicago office leaked the story to the Perry campaign via information and influence from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office.

The Republican Presidential primary debates keep piling up. The latest one is being hosted by CNBC and the Michigan Republican Party, and will be held November 9th at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

The debate will be televised on CNBC from 8-10 PM ET, and will focus on issues that will likely resonate with CNBC viewers: the economy, taxes, jobs and the deficit.

CBS News and National Journal today are announcing a Republican presidential debate to take place on November 12 at 8 p.m. ET. It will take place at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. and will be moderated by CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Scott Pelley and National Journal congressional correspondent Major Garrett. The debate, the first on broadcast television, will focus primarily on national security.

The American Enterprise Institute, in partnership with CNN and The Heritage Foundation, is pleased to announce that the Republican presidential debate on foreign policy and national security will take place on Tuesday, November 22, at 8 p.m. ET.

The national security debate, a landmark first for AEI and Heritage, has moved to November 22 to accommodate this season’s crowded debating schedule.

"We are delighted to have this opportunity to focus our national conversation on this vital topic,” said AEI President Arthur C. Brooks. “In the week that our families come together for Thanksgiving, there is no better time to remember the importance of the safety and security of the American people."

This is not an idle question. Shortly after the story was published, some of the reporters started appearing on cable news shows, refusing to answer questions about any of the specifics of the complaints, and — and this bit is crucial — pointing the media toward Cain, suggesting that they approach him about the specifics.

And now, the media campaign aimed at Cain is fixated less on the “crime” — even CNN ran a story acknowledging that such claims and settlements are oftentimes just the cost of doing business (Kurt Schlichter follows that up with a good New York Post column today detailing how these suits work) — and more on a supposed concern over Herman Cain’s “evolving story.” The cover-up, you see, is worse than the crime — and Cain’s responses, we’re told, have raised all sort of questions about his veracity.

The excuse the reporters gave for the thinness of the details they provided in their initial story was that they were concerned to protect the privacy of the women whose claims they’d anonymously referenced. Less concerned were they about Herman Cain’s reputation and good name and how this story may affect it — not surprising, really, given that Politico reporters were involved in at least one iteration of Journolist (essentially, a cabal of liberal-left reporters who colluded together behind the scenes to determine the news cycle and to aid progressive causes and candidates, while hoping to delegitimate Republicans, conservatives, and the TEA Party). But surprising or not, the questions I’m hoping to raise are still valid ones and redound to Politico’s standard for professional ethics....

Or, to put it another way, how do the Politico reporters square their suggestion that Mr Cain be responsible for providing the specifics to a story they published, with their own knowledge of a confidentiality agreement that they knew would prevent Mr Cain from speaking.

Already, the new wrinkle to this story is that Cain may have violated the confidentiality agreement merely by attempting to answer questions from reporters demanding the specifics Politico reporters asserted it was incumbent upon Mr Cain to provide. In fact, Politico itself is now reporting, using one of the women’s attorneys as their proxy, that Cain broke his confidentiality agreement.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

In written testimony prepared for delivery to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, Inspector General Gregory Friedman said the investigations have involved "various schemes, including the submission of false information, claims for unallowable or unauthorized expenses, and other improper uses of Recovery Act funds."

Dorothy Rodham died shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C. She was 92

In a statement, the Clinton family hailed Rodham as a woman who "overcame abandonment and hardship as a young girl to become the remarkable woman she was — a warm, generous and strong woman; an intellectual; a woman who told a great joke and always got the joke; an extraordinary friend and, most of all, a loving wife, mother and grandmother."

In a debate during the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton called her mother her inspiration. "I owe it to my mother, who never got a chance to go to college, who had a very difficult childhood, but who gave me a belief that I could do whatever I set my mind," she said.

The Clinton family plans a private memorial service. The family statement said any donations should be made to George Washington Hospital, where Rodham "received excellent care and made terrific friends over many years"; or to the Heifer Project (http://www.heifer.org/ ), her Christmas gift of choice in 2010.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF OAKLAND FROM THE OAKLAND POLICE OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION
1 November 2011 – Oakland, Ca.

We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families. We are severely understaffed with many City beats remaining unprotected by police during the day and evening hours.

As your police officers, we are confused.

On Tuesday, October 25th, we were ordered by Mayor Quan to clear out the encampments at Frank Ogawa Plaza and to keep protesters out of the Plaza. We performed the job that the Mayor’s Administration asked us to do, being fully aware that past protests in Oakland have resulted in rioting, violence and destruction of property.

Then, on Wednesday, October 26th, the Mayor allowed protesters back in – to camp out at the very place they were evacuated from the day before.

To add to the confusion, the Administration issued a memo on Friday, October 28th to all City workers in support of the “Stop Work” strike scheduled for Wednesday, giving all employees, except for police officers, permission to take the day off.

That’s hundreds of City workers encouraged to take off work to participate in the protest against “the establishment.” But aren’t the Mayor and her Administration part of the establishment they are paying City employees to protest? Is it the City’s intention to have City employees on both sides of a skirmish line?

It is all very confusing to us.

Meanwhile, a message has been sent to all police officers: Everyone, including those who have the day off, must show up for work on Wednesday. This is also being paid for by Oakland taxpayers. Last week’s events alone cost Oakland taxpayers over $1 million.

The Mayor and her Administration are beefing up police presence for Wednesday’s work strike they are encouraging and even “staffing,” spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for additional police presence – at a time when the Mayor is also asking Oakland residents to vote on an $80 parcel tax to bail out the City’s failing finances.

All of these mixed messages are confusing.

We love Oakland and just want to do our jobs to protect Oakland residents. We respectfully ask the citizens of Oakland to join us in demanding that our City officials, including Mayor Quan, make sound decisions and take responsibility for these decisions. Oakland is struggling – we need real leaders NOW who will step up and lead – not send mixed messages. Thank you for listening.

“Some of them are totally unfounded. It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp,” Capital New York reports Bloomberg saying. h/t: The Blaze

...At a time of record deficits and a heightened need to cut government spending, it is clear that spending taxpayer money in this manner is inappropriate.

Furthermore, as with any book deal, there is no doubt some level of royalties paid to you for each copy purchased by the government. Receiving royalties from government purchases of your book is exactly the type of out-of-touch Washington behavior that the American people are weary of and will no longer tolerate.

We request that you instruct all agencies to no longer purchase copies of your books and remit a payment to the Treasury Department for any royalties received as a result of these sales....

A review of the expenditures in a federal database did not reveal any examples of State Department purchases of books by former Presidents George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. The purchases of Mr. Obama’s literary work mostly, but not always, took place in the months after Mr. Obama captured the White House.

Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group, said if the federal government is looking to cut costs, eliminating purchases of Mr. Obama’s books is a good place to start.

“It’s inappropriate for U.S. taxpayer dollars to be spent on this,” she said. “This sounds like propaganda.”

Order delicious Thanskgiving and Christmas treats from the Humboldt Republican Party. For Thanksgiving we have tempting freshly-baked pumpkin pies. For Christmas, homemade pumpkin and pecan pies, cinnamon rolls and treat-filled gift baskets from Eureka’s Bella Baskets, especially made up for us to offer you. (For more info, click image above to enlarge.)

Thanksgiving Order deadline Friday, November 18th and
Pick up day is Wednesday, November 23rd, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.,
at Republican Headquarters, 311 Fifth St., Eureka.

Eleven Republican congressmen piled on Holder on Monday, demanding that he quit, adding to 17 others who had already said it is time for him to go. Others held off on calling for his immediate resignation, but said he has one last chance to redeem himself, when he appears before the House judiciary committee on Dec. 8. Holder has come under increasing fire for stonewalling on Fast and Furious.

Former GOP Rep. George Radanovich and four other plaintiffs announced today that they will file a lawsuit in federal district court arguing that the lines drawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission violate the Federal Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.

The lawsuit, which will likely be filed later this week in Southern California, will argue that California's 14-member commission violated the law by intentionally not creating majority African-American and Latino congressional districts in Los Angeles County when it drafted the state's 53 congressional districts, according to a release.

"The California Redistricting Commission chose to put politics above the law when they drew the new congressional lines," Radanovich said in a statement. "We are confident the Court will agree with us to right this wrong and order new lines to be drawn."

The new congressional maps, drafted as part of the decennial redistricting process, have come under fire from conservatives who say they give an edge to Democrats.

According to a press release, the book takes "readers on the helicopter flight over the wall that leads deep into the terrorist lair and describing what it looked, sounded and smelled like as the bullets flew."

The book also takes issue with the Obama administration's characterization of the mission.

At President Clinton's direction, no fewer than 10 federal agencies issued a chilling ultimatum to banks and mortgage lenders to ease credit for lower-income minorities or face investigations for lending discrimination and suffer the related adverse publicity. They also were threatened with denial of access to the all-important secondary mortgage market and stiff fines, along with other penalties.

The threat was codified in a 20-page "Policy Statement on Discrimination in Lending" and entered into the Federal Register on April 15, 1994, by the Interagency Task Force on Fair Lending. Clinton set up the little-known body to coordinate an unprecedented crackdown on alleged bank redlining. Read the rest.

It seems that in both cases, the various political movements are demanding increased government regulation of and control over private enterprise in order to achieve their desired equal result.

Recently, I listened to a representative of “Equality California” detailing all the legislation his outfit advocated, asking his interlocutor to eheck the web-site to see the full list of laws they wanted to see enacted. Driving away, I recalled the first five words of the Bill of Rights, “Congress shall make no law . . .” (Emphasis added.)... Read the rest.

If the allegations are indeed false, then the Cain campaign better be able to elaborate about what was specifically false in the story. Simply blaming the "establishment" for trying to take him down, won't cut it outside of his die hard fan base.

Ann Coulter responds to a report from the "liberal publication" Politico that Herman Cain sexually harassed two women while he was the president of the National Restaurant Association.
"Liberals are terrified of Herman Cain. He is a strong conservative black man. Look at the way they go after Allen West and Michael Steele and they aren't even running against Obama. They are terrified of strong, conservative, black men," Coulter said.

The interview with Fox, scheduled to air on van Susteren's program at 10 p.m. Eastern time, is part of a series of interviews Cain is making this week. (Note: I am a Fox News contributor.) The press offensive was originally planned to discuss Cain's economic plans, but has turned into a series of questions about the sexual harassment allegations from the 1990s.

The reprehensible act of fabricating a sexual-discrimination charge to generate headlines that play on presumed deeply held racial fears is the ultimate act of desperation, and whoever is responsible for the leak should be drummed out of politics forever.

CBS News reports Holder will appear before the House Judiciary Committee to answer further questions about his role in Operation Fast and Furious on December 8. Perhaps we’ll hear more about all the reports he doesn’t read, and operations he doesn’t monitor.

Meanwhile, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight committee, wants to hear more from former Acting ATF Director Ken Melson… in order to shore up the firewall of deniability around Eric Holder, as he obliquely explained in a letter to Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA)...

So Cummings wants to give Ken Melson one more chance to serve as the Fast and Furious fall guy, a role he proved surprisingly unwilling to fill.

Melson has reportedly agreed to testify before the Judiciary Committee, where he’ll have an opportunity to bolster Eric Holder’s strange “incompetence” defense against perjury charges, by testifying the Attorney General was serenely unaware of a massive, supposedly “botched” operation that killed both Mexican and American citizens. It looks like Cummings doesn’t think the Fast and Furious expedition is a “political stunt” and a “deep-sea fishing expedition” any more.

Update: late-breaking reports say Holder will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 8, while House Judiciary gets him on December 8.

An independent group raising money in the name of Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has close ties to operatives with a history of enriching themselves by drawing money from conservative donors that goes largely to the fundraisers and not the campaigns.

A collection of political professionals in a downtown Washington suite has perfected the art of aligning itself with Washington outsiders with poorly run campaigns and raising large amounts, which are then paid primarily to direct-mail and consulting firms they control. The donors, most commonly retirees, are often unaware of exactly to whom they are giving.

Now, they are sending solicitations that look like official Herman Cain materials, but which fine print shows to be from an independent group.

The case involves absentee ballots from the Working Families Party primary in September of 2009 for the Troy City Council and Rensselaer County legislature. It has been alleged the signatures and absentee excuses of unsuspecting voters were forged, all to ensure the Democratic candidates also won the Working Families Party line. Democratic candidates in New York State often run as Working Families Party hopefuls.

County Democratic Chairman Thomas Wade pointed out that in the 2009 elections, when the absentee ballot scandal became public, Democrats took seven of nine City Council seats and unseated five city Republicans on the County Legislature....

The State Police investigation was carried out over the last two years.

The men are accused of systematically forging signatures on absentee ballots at either the county office building or somewhere in the city during the buildup to the Sept. 15, 2009 Working Families Party primary. Many of the questionable ballots were filed under the names of students and some of the city's poorest residents, many who live in Troy Housing Authority apartments.

Last year, as a debate over the runaway national debt gathered steam in Washington, Social Security passed a treacherous milestone. It went “cash negative.”

For most of its 75-year history, the program had paid its own way through a dedicated stream of payroll taxes, even generating huge surpluses for the past two decades. But in 2010, under the strain of a recession that caused tax revenue to plummet, the cost of benefits outstripped tax collections for the first time since the early 1980s.

Now, Social Security is sucking money out of the Treasury. This year, it will add a projected $46 billion to the nation’s budget problems, according to projections by system trustees. Replacing cash lost to a one-year payroll tax holiday will require an additional $105 billion. If the payroll tax break is expanded next year, as President Obama has proposed, Social Security will need an extra $267 billion to pay promised benefits.

But while talk about fixing the nation’s finances has grown more urgent, fixing Social Security has largely vanished from the conversation....

Social Security is hardly the biggest drain on the budget. But unless Congress acts, its finances will continue to deteriorate as the rising tide of baby boomers begins claiming benefits. The $2.6 trillion Social Security trust fund will provide little relief. The government has borrowed every cent and now must raise taxes, cut spending or borrow more heavily from outside investors to keep benefit checks flowing.

Many Democrats have largely chosen to ignore the shortfall, insisting the program is flush, citing the existence of the trust fund. They argue that fixing Social Security can wait, perhaps for years.

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“Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.” .....Robert A. Heinlein quotes (American science-fiction Writer, 1907-1988)